25 Must-Attend Digital Conferences in 2015

Every year, the BuzzShift team reviews all the best digital conferences across the globe. All BuzzShift employees receive a yearly $1,500 conference budget to help them grow in their roles. The reality is, you can learn a lot from these conferences. Not only are you learning from the experts, but these conferences are also a great place to collaborate and build your network.

For 2015 we hand-selected a list of the “Must Attend” digital conferences based on overall quality, content, network opportunities, and potential key learnings. Below is our list of the top 25 conferences to attend.

Where: Las Vegas, NVWhen: January 6 – 9Why you should attend: Typically, when you think of CES, you think of the expo floor where all the latest gadgets are on display in flashy booths. As marketers, what gets us excited is learning what you can do with all of the data from these new wearables, virtual reality sets, connected cars, and other devices.Focus: Digital Media, Data, Insights

Where: Austin, TXWhen: March 13-17Why you should attend: Agencies and brands must stay relevant, and keeping up with technology is just the start. SXSW is all about learning and “keeping up.” Beyond that, there is no better conference in the world to network at than SXSW. Yes, it is becoming almost too mainstream, and large brands have officially taken over the original startup vibe, but it is still a must for all digital marketers.Focus: Generalists, Networking, Digital Strategy

Where: San Diego, CAWhen: March 25-27Why you should attend: To learn from industry pros and experts covering social media tactics, content creation, and social strategy.Focus: Social Media Strategy and Tactics, Content Marketing

Where: Portland, ORWhen: April 27-29Why you should attend: The Hero conference is one of the best conferences for Paid Media people in your office. It includes a hyper-curated group of speakers that are focused on PPC.Focus: Paid Media, PPC, Adwords

Where: Las Vegas, NVWhen: May 5-6Why you should attend: From the team at Web Summit and Rise Conference, Collision is a 10,000-person conference featuring more than 1,000 startups. If you work with startups, invest in startups, or are a startup, this is where you want to be.Focus: Startups, Growth Hacking, Go-To-Market Strategies, Venture Capital

Where: Denver, COWhen: May 13-15Why you should attend: Because you’re interested in design, content, traffic, and conversion. All of them. It’s a single-track conference. If you are just beginning to get your feet wet in digital marketing, this will give you a good overview.Focus: Copywriting, Design, Email Marketing, Content Marketing

Where: San Francisco, CAWhen: May 20-21Why you should attend: To network; stay abreast of emerging trends; and share tactics, strategies, and insights with some of the best and brightest by the bay.Focus: Ad Technology

Where: Las Vegas, NVWhen: June 1-4Why you should attend: The ultimate conference for creators and builders of the web. Future of Insights Live continues to bring together some of the most thought-provoking speakers in the space. Think TED talks, but focused on design and development.Focus: Web Design and Development

Where: Seattle, WAWhen: July 13-15Why you should attend: You’re an SEO professional or focused on analytics and conversion optimization, and you’re a Moz Pro subscriber (which gets you a significant discount—$500 at early bird rates).Focus: SEO, Social Media, Content Marketing

Where: New York City, NYWhen: July 16-18Why you should attend: If you work with any brand that is focused on or geared towards women, BlogHer is worth a look. Come to learn and to build your network of bloggers for your brands.Focus: Blogging, Influencer Marketing

Where: Cleveland, OHWhen: September 8-11Why you should attend: Because you’re in charge of content creation, you need to come up with a better content marketing strategy, or you get fired up by terms like “epic content marketing.” Plus, Cleveland rocks.Focus: Content Strategy, Integration, Measurement

Where: Boston, MAWhen: September 8-11Why you should attend: Learn from some of the best inbound marketers. Five keynote speakers, 170+ educational sessions, and over 10,000 attendees show up for Inbound as it hits on high-level topics around inbound marketing.Focus: Generalists, Sales Professionals, Writers

Where: San Francisco, CAWhen: September 15-18Why you should attend: Dreamforce is Salesforce.com’s annual conference, and is the largest B2B conference in the world. Look into the future of B2B, marketing ideas, and hear from some of the most inspiring keynotes.Focus: B2B

Where: Boston, MAWhen: October 4-6Why you should attend: Marketers should always be leveraging data to help inform them about what content they should be creating. This long-running but newly-rebranded event is about marrying data and creativity in everything from strategy to engagement and attribution.Focus: Data-Informed Marketing

Where: Las Vegas, NVWhen: October 5-9Why you should attend: Traditionally Pubcon has been the creme de le creme of SEO conferences, but has evolved into one of the top social media and optimization conferences.Focus: SEO, Digital Marketing Tactics

Where: Dublin, IrelandWhen: OctoberWhy you should attend: “Where the Tech World meets” is their slogan. This can’t be any more true. Think SXSW circa 2007, but in Europe. The Summit provides the ultimate experience for technologists to come together and change the world.Focus: Marketing Technology, Growth Hacking

Where: Scottsdale, AZWhen: OctoberWhy you should attend: Be on the lookout for BOLO, an up-and-comer digital marketing conference. It’s small, almost intimate, with a cap of 250 attendees, which makes it easier to actually meet the speakers and get to know fellow conference-goers.Focus: Digital Marketing Tactics

Where: Atlanta, Seattle, Boston, San Diego, DC, Chicago, Austin, San FranciscoWhen: Throughout the yearWhy you should attend: You’re a designer or developer who wants to be among the best at what you do.Focus: Design, UX

Where: Silicon Valley, Las Vegas, NYC, San Jose, SeattleWhen: Throughout the yearWhy you should attend: To stay on top of search, SEO, SEM, and social media marketing tactics and trends.Focus: Search Marketing, PPC, Social Media Marketing

2 Comments

There is another cool event, which will be held in Spain: the Protocols Plugfest, where there will be talks from the best speakers about the latest advances on interoperability. Currently there are 20 confirmed speakers from the companies like Microsoft, Dell and Red Hat, and there will be over 30+ sessions about Exchange, SMB Directory Services, Sharepoint, Business Intelligence and more. You can check out all speakers here: http://www.protocolsplugfest.com/europe/speakers/